Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #4

From the Duluth Trivia deck I found in a game at Savers.

  1. How long has Duluth had a Symphony Orchestra?
  2. The DSSO produced opera annually for 26 years. Which conductor began this tradition and in what year?
  3. Where does the “concertmaster” of the DSSO sit?
  4. What year did “Fitger’s on the Lake” open?
  5. What year did the Fitger’s Brewery close?
  6. How many years was the old brewery in continuous operation?
  7. Who was Margaret Culkin Banning?
  8. Who said that “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Duluth”?
  9. Where in Duluth is the important collection of Eastman Johnson paintings housed?
  10. What was the Hjemkomst?

Answers:

  1. Since 1925.
  2. Hermann Herz in 1959 — anyone have memories to share?
  3. The first chair violin player — is this true for all orchestras?
  4. 1984
  5. 1972
  6. 115 years
  7. A Duluth author — anyone know the work?
  8. Mark Twain
  9. The Depot
  10. The sailing vessel Robert Asp built and his children sailed from Duluth to Bergen, Norway.

4 Comments

Paul Lundgren

about 6 years ago

Regarding Twain, it should be noted that the "coldest winter" quote is one of two Twain remarks about Duluth that have never been verified.

More about that in the post "References to Duluth in Popular Literature."

Dave Lull

about 6 years ago

The Quote Investigator explored the coldest winter comment:

The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent Was a Summer in San Francisco

“Locale: San Francisco, California? Paris, France? Duluth, Minnesota? Milwaukee, Wisconsin?
“Originator: Mark Twain? Horace Walpole? James Quin? R. Q. Grant? Lord Byron? Anonymous?”

Tony D.

about 6 years ago

Twain quote is a myth. Here is something Twain actually did write about Duluth.

Re: Banning.

No brewery ever operated in Duluth for 115 years. Fitger's officially started as the A. Fitger & Co. Lake Superior Brewery in 1885 and closed in September, 1972, 87 years. The original Lake Superior Brewery building was built in 1881 by Michael Fink. Prior to that, Fink operated Duluth's original brewery along Washington Avenue and Brewery Creek, first established in 1859 by Sidney Luce (financier) and J. Gottlieb Busch (cooper-turned-brewer). Luce/Busch operated under several owners from 1859 until ca. 1885. The 1881 brewery building was destroyed by fire in 1920, and brewery operations had moved out of that specific building by 1900. So Fitger's can "technically" trace it's history back to 1859, but that's still only 113 years from 1859 to 1972, not 115.

Gina Temple-Rhodes

about 6 years ago

So ... why does the David Ouse piece about Banning not mention her North Carolina home and connections, when Wikipedia hardly mentions her Duluth connections? In NC, her former home is listed in the National Register of Historic Places listing her as a "significant figure." I also find it odd that her MN Author Biography doesn't mention Duluth (except as a Library Trustee) either.


Just curious why the NC estate rates such a mention related to her life, and nothing in Duluth seems to anymore? Also, I think I want to be her, an independent woman who bought a lovely estate on her own (with a log cabin writing retreat) before her second marriage.

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